The Cooking and Cuisine of Umbria

[Kevin72]

What are the shreddy white things on top, over the sprinkles? Or is that just the icing? Sorry I jumped to that conclusion; I out of habit survey cakes now to make sure someone hasn't put coconut in the icing . . .

Edit: Wow, I've never heard of alchermes before or at least don't recall having seen it before. And you made it, too, you fiend!

Edited October 13, 2006 by Kevin72 (log)

[Adam Balic]

Edit: Wow, I've never heard of alchermes before or at least don't recall having seen it before.   And you made it, too, you fiend!

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It is very hard to find out side Italy. It is very common in zuppa inglese (makes it very pink). Cheap bottles are found in most Italian supermarkets, but a very expensive version is made by Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella in Florence (indicating it's medical origin).

Originally it was made from the roots of Bugloss (also known as "Alkanet", (Anchusa spp)), which give a red dye, hence the name.

I have been looking for a bottle for awhile, so it is great see a recipe.

Edited October 13, 2006 by Adam Balic (log)

[FoodMan]

Kevin-

I see what you mean by saying "coconut". This is actually the icing "skin" that was broken in places to allow the sprinkles to adhere better.

Last night's dinner:

Red bell peppers are abundant at the market this week, so I picked four up and roasted them. I served them as an antipasto following a recipe in Della Croce's book. Very very simple and addictive on top of toasted Umbrian bread. The peppers were topped with mint, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and anchovie fillets.

Main course was also from Della Croce's book, garlic and herb marinated deep fried chicken. Fried chicken is great but add sage, garlic and rosemary and it is out of this world with a fantastic crispy crackly skin due to the flour and egg dip. I actually had to restrain myself from marinating the chicken in buttermilk first, something I do not believe any Umbrian would apporve of

Winter squashes are here, undoubtedly my favorite winter vegetable. Here is my interpretation of Umbrian roasted squash (Turban and a mottled Acorn) loosly following a recipe from Jamie Oliver's Italy book. The squashes were painted with a paste made from olive oil, sage, honey and cinnamon. I could eat those for dinner on their own. BTW, don't peel these and the skin turns lovely and crispy.

Dessert was also from Della Croce, Rum and Orange infused rice fritters (I think she attributes these to the feast of St. Joseph). They don't look like much but they tasted like eating deep fried very good rice pudding.

[Kevin72]

Spectacular as always, Elie! That pumpkin sounds amazing; I've also been wanting to do something with the ones we're seeing at CM lately.

I'm really loving that the weather's actually cooperating and appropriately autumnal for this shift in cooking. I'm looking forward to a number of upcoming meals.

[Pontormo]

Yum! I had asked about something Umbrian to do with winter squash (buttercup, in my case, which is quite similar to turban). This looks perfect, though I must say the roasted peppers are calling out to me, too. J d Croce calls them Umbrian? The mint is distinctive.

Just checked online library catalogs. JO's book is on order. Anything about the flavors or recipe you haven't divulged that I ought to know to make it tonight?

[FoodMan]

Yum!  I had asked about something Umbrian to do with winter squash (buttercup, in my case, which is quite similar to turban).  This looks perfect, though I must say the roasted peppers are calling out to me, too.  J d Croce calls them Umbrian?  The mint is distinctive.

Just checked online library catalogs.  JO's book is on order.  Anything about the flavors or recipe you haven't divulged that I ought to know to make it tonight?

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His recipe is very simple, the sliced squashes are brushed with a paste pounded in a mortar made from cinnamon, fresh sage, dried hot chile, salt and olive oil. Then the squash is raosted till soft at a high temp (~450F). I also made a paste in the mortar but omitted the hot chile since my wife cannot eat it and added black pepper and a tablespoon or so of honey because it gets so nice and caramalized. If you notice even the seeds are roasted alongside the squashes, they are very good eaten whole or if you know how de-shelled.

The peppers are really fantastic, give them a try. I used salt packed anchovies but olive oil packed ones are ok too. Even my fish phobic mother in law enjoyed these, and I thought I would be the only one eating the pepper slices with anchovies on them.

[Kevin72]

The pepper/anchovy recipe brought up a little irk I have with that book though. It's not entirely rational, and even kind of elitist of me, but the book is so thin on recipes to begin with that it was kind of irritating that that recipe showed up; I mean, you see it everywhere, pretty much. She does a pretty good job with most and keeps things within a clear Umbrian "theme" as it were, and not to say that this sort of thing isn't eaten in Umbria, but it just didn't add much I thought. A pet peeve of mine with regional cookbooks is when they throw in recipes from outside that region or recipes that you can get from any cookbook, particularly when there aren't that many recipes to begin with.

[FoodMan]

The pepper/anchovy recipe brought up a little irk I have with that book though.  It's not entirely rational, and even kind of elitist of me, but the book is so thin on recipes to begin with that it was kind of irritating that that recipe showed up; I mean, you see it everywhere, pretty much.  She does a pretty good job with most and keeps things within a clear Umbrian "theme" as it were, and not to say that this sort of thing isn't eaten in Umbria, but it just didn't add much I thought.  A pet peeve of mine with regional cookbooks is when they throw in recipes from outside that region or recipes that you can get from any cookbook, particularly when there aren't that many recipes to begin with.

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Good point, I see what you mean. She could've omited it and instead placed a true unique Umbrian antipasto instead.

[Kevin72]

And it certainly wasn't meant as a slight to your making it or on the dish itself. I'm sure it's delicious--in fact, I know it is since I've made variations before--just again an issue of space and recipe utilization. I mean, if the book had the same depth and scope that Naples At Table did, for example, I wouldn't really be so bothered with it.

[Pontormo]

I sympathesize with your point about selection, Kevin. I am a fan of J d C, nonetheless, going back to her joint publication with Evan Kleinman.

As for slim pickings, that is the nature of Chronicle's series which is heavy on atmospheric pictures, designed in part, for the tourist-cook who wishes to replicate some of her/his memories. I have one of the publisher's books on insalate which I thumb through when I find myself in a salad rut.

The decision to go slim on the volume may also respond to a popular Italian series of PB cookbooks on regional cuisine--put out by La Sera (Milan's newspaper) if I'm not mistaken.

Edited October 13, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[Kevin72]

Yeah, in a way I guess it makes business sense that as a publisher you wouldn't want to pay for a 300-page volume of recipes for each region each time.

Still and all, fantasy of fantasies is Batali deciding to do a book on each region. He made it almost 2/3rds of the way already on the shows, so he has a backlog there, and he's a good enough writer or well-spoken enough that he could do it.

But certainly if he needs a researcher/ghost writer, I might be able to dig someone up . . .

[BarbaraY]

But certainly if he needs a researcher/ghost writer, I might be able to dig someone up . . .

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(Groan!

I have been lurking for some time but have had nothing to add. After seeing the squash and chicken, I think I need the Della Croce book. I have her Ultimate Pasta and really enjoy using some of the recipes.

[Kevin72]

Wait, no, that was an unintentional pun, I swear . . .

[Chufi]

Porcini misfortunes, part II.

so, yesterday I was at the market and passed a vegetable stall (one I never go to because they sold me some bad stuff in the past). And there they were, right next to eachother: the King Oyster mushrooms (or whatever they're called) mentioned above, and something that looked, suspiciously, like the Real Thing.

I asked how much is the porcini? (using the Dutch word, eekhoorntjesbrood, which means squirrelbread, which is of no significance to this story, but just some interesting porcinitrivia)

"you want the real ones or the fake ones? both are 2,50 euro per 100 grams".

"uhm, okay, I'll take the real ones please"

I was very happy. These porcini were going to end up on my 'sort of Umbrian gourmet pizza', together with a jar of trufflepaste. I could already smell the delicious autumnal aroma that was going to waft through the house on Sunday afternoon.

Just now, prepping for dinner, I opend the paperbag with the mushrooms. Yes, they are there, but what's also inside, are maggots. Not just one fat one which I could have flushed down the sink. Dozens of tiny white maggots, happily eating their way through my Real Porcini.

We're having crackers with wild boar-truffle pate (made by my organic butcher) right now, as an appetizer, which is, at least, sort of in tune with Umbria.

Then there will be eggplant & chorizo pizza for dinner. I hope to do better, Umbrian-dinner wise, later in the week.

edited to add: thanks to Pontormo, I found a number of posts about worms in porcini (doesn't 'worms' sound better than 'maggots'?

Apparently these are very common and you can still eat the mushrooms.

Hm. I threw them out.. there were so many of them.. can't say I'm sorry!

Edited October 15, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Kevin72]

Alot of times when they're sold they are displayed split in half to gauge the level of infestation, unfortunately. Yuck. Sorry you're having such a time with them. Just think how good they'll finally be though, when you do actually get to eat one!

[Pontormo]

Yick, Klary! (In case you all are wondering, I PM'ed Klary about the porcini thread earlier.)

* * *

Okay, I am not giving up with asking market-based questions.

Brought some FRESH borlotti home today; would you believe their relative is called "Bird's Egg Beans' in West Virginia where mine were grown? Unfortunately, a number turn out to be a bit green since they picked too early, probably as a precautionary measure since the temperatures dropped last night to near-freezing temperatures and a lot of crops were lost . I don't have much, but was wondering if Judith or someone else with Italian experience knows if there is anything special done with the fresh beans that is different from what is done with them when they're dried.

Second, my cardoon source is going to bring a batch to market just for me. I am hoping at this time of year, they'll be better. So, Judith , what's up with your adventures with them?

Edited October 15, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[legourmet]

I made a sort of Umbrian dinner today. But first a question.. Is this fresh porcini??

My market sells it as such.. but I have to say I was really underwhelmed by the flavor.. it was quite bland, I expected something much more earthy and woodsy.. and if this isn't porcini, then what is it?

Your photo shows the Pleurotus eryngii in German "Kräuterseitling or Königs-Austernseitling" a cultivated mushroom like the Pleurotus ostreatus (Austernseitling).

Both are not very good in taste but at least eatable.

The porcini mushroom is shown here

[Kevin72]

Friday night's meal was sausages and grapes. To make it more Octoberfest-y I added cabbage. Actually, this is a recipe I've been cooking for a long time after seeing it on one of Mario Batali's earlier shows. Grill the sausage, braise the cabbage with a little onion, the grapes, and then finish with vinegar. I used red cabbage this time, but normally napa cabbage goes really well also.

Yesterday I spent the rainy afternoon making umbrecelli(?), the handmade pasta in della Croce's book. No claims on authenticity, though, with the final result:

The condimento was based on the sausage, lemon, and nutmeg recipe in her book, though I ommitted the cream and egg emulsion stirred in at the end and also added dried porcini to give the whole thing more body.

I think I overdid it a little with the lemon, though.

For the main, I made pigeons (cornish game hens) Amelia style, from the Umbria en boca site mentioned at the start of this thread.

The game hens were brined in and then basted with a mixture of white wine, lemon rind, cloves, garlic, and peppercorns. I also stuffed them with sage which imparted a nearly floral flavor to the meat. My wife really liked it.

The contorno was potatoes and greens, back to della Croce again.

Edited October 16, 2006 by Kevin72 (log)

[NYC Mike]

Wow Kevin, the pasta looks great. Is that the same one Hathor had with the tomato ricotta sauce? Hard to make?

-Mike

[hathor]

Ciao-ciao!! Sorry I haven't had any computer time the past few days!

Klary, here is a porcini photo for you. Like you haven 't seen enough of them! There have been autumn festas around and about, and the festa in Citerna had an excellent funghi exhibition. They show the good, the bad and the truly toxic. I HATE those maggots...they truly gross me out. But...all the local woods porcinis I've eaten don't have any worms in them. I've been told they come up thru the stem, and if you cut off the stem above the infestation, you're safe. Blech.

I spent Friday afternoon at a friends trying to rescue and harvest walnuts. It's been too wet so we wanted to get them in and dry them for a few days. What this really means is Jeff climbed the walnut tree with a stick, and wacked walnuts down onto our heads.

Then we collected "radicchio inverno"...sort of semi-wild bitter field greens.

This wound up in a 'sandwich' of sauteed greens, spicy chinghiale sausage and some sort of soft white cheese, stazzichetti (sp??) or something like that. Very tasty.

I had a lot more greens, so they got frozen and I've been using them in different dishes. Today they were incorporated into an orchiette pasta that we had for lunch.

Swisskaese, if you are around, we went to the Morra chestnut festival yesterday. What a lovely festa. These guys were out in a field with these huge chestnut roasters, hand cranking them. It looked sort of....pagan....if you ask me. When the chestnuts were done, they were sorted, put into little white bags and run up the hill to waiting hoardes.

The elementary school house was open, and on the wall was a long class report all about the different types of chestnuts, health benefits, how to cook them, etc. etc. It was really cute!

They also had this fried bread thingy...the women were rolling them out as fast as they could and everyone was just lining up for their 'cicciana", you could have them with salt sprinkle or sugar. We went the salty route.

Elie, that cake you made looks wonderful!! Authentic...right down to the sprinkes!!

Kevin, that photo of your umbricilli is a little....scary! The photos were loading, and I glanced over and WOAH! What was that!! I'm sure they were delcious! They do look very similiar to the sagne that I had over on the Puglia thread. I thought picci and umbricelli were the same thing....basically a very thick spaghetti strand, without the twist. I'll dig around and see what I can find. I love the sauce....sounds like a perfect fall flavor combination.

Pontormo, I've decided two things: 1) I really like cardoons 2) I'm not afraid of them anymore.

We were served them for dinner at a friends house on Friday night, and they really are delicious. I want to work on a sformato with cardoons. Have to wait until Wes. market...

Cookbooks! I was given the nicest present the other day: "Gli Eredi Di Apicio" or "The Heirs of Apicio" Apicio being a name for people who live in the area between Montone and Pietralunga. It includes a recipe for that classic dish : "Padelata". Padelata is a breakfast treat made from freshly slaughtered pigs blood...you can make a sweet or savory version. But...you have to get up very early to be making this dish. Its one of those locally published pamphlets and its full of good stuff.

Potatoes in ash: take potatoes and cook under the ash of a hot fire.

Cialdoni: seems to be a basic sort of pastry recipe, flour, lard, sugar, cold water, anise seeds. Then it just says: mix the ingredients and place between the appropriate baking untenisl, or two hot plates. That's it. Leaves a bit to the imagination.....

OH! Somewhere this weekend, I made a pot of Triticum Dicoccum (farro!) soup. For anyone who doesn't know what farro looks like, here you go. Looks just like barley, doesn't it???

Kevin, did you braise those grapes? They look gorgeous!! What a nice look dish.

Nobody has made passatelli yet!! I broke my passatelli press, but that's one of my favorite comfort foods. Time to get a new one...

[Shaya]

Kevin, those meal looks fantastic, from the grapes and sausage to the wormy squiggly pasta to the crispy potatoes with greens. I really have Italian cuisine to thank for getting me into eating greens. I really didn't get them 10 years ago. On the note of those umbrecelli, are they a regular egg-flour dough?

Judith, I'm right there with you and Swisskaese when it comes to chestnuts. Lucky you to be in the midst of them the way you are! My parents used to roast them in the evenings and bring them to me while I was studying. A wonderful memory. I still buy loads whenever I see a good batch in town. I had my first of the season last night, a big disappointment. So far only chestnuts from China (!) are available, and they must be a completely different species because the tops burnt in no time . Hopefully the Italian ones will make their way here soon.

[Pontormo]

Kevin: That really is quite a feast! Could you say a little more about the potatoes and greens since I don't have JdC's book and I can't quite figure out what happened before they were plated? As for the home-rolled pasta, ahh! One of the few culinary memories I have from short trips taken down to Umbria was in Orvieto where I had my first picci, lightly sauced and slightly piccante.

Judith: Exactly what I wanted to see: some of the things your neighbors and friends are preparing quickly and simply. That sandwich and the flat bread look great. Thanks for everything else, especially the reports of foraging and chestnuts. Yes, I do think farro is a lot like barley, though I don't know if it soaks up quite as much liquid.

Once acquired, my only problem with cardoons was in the quality, due in part to the fact that it was an experimental crop, but also because of the time of year it was harvested in a climate that doesn't resemble Italy's as much as Northern California's does. From what I understand, this is a better time of year. I wrote about sformati in the Piemonte thread, prepared after consulting Batali's recipe for flans made with cardoons. (In his first book, he mentioned that his wife grows them.) Alice Waters serves cardoons with artichokes in a no-frills salad at Chez Panisse (Docsconz posted a picture in his report of a meal at the restaurant). You showed us a gorgeous artichoke here or in your recent blog.

[Kevin72]

Wow Kevin, the pasta looks great.  Is that the same one Hathor had with the tomato ricotta sauce?  Hard to make?

-Mike

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I think the sagne were more of a broad noodle corkscrewed on itself; like maybe papardelle? I've also been meaning to ask if those were a dried pasta?

Not hard, per se, but definitely labor-intensive. Maybe having kids helping would make it more fun. But you make a regular batch of fettucine, then fold the noodle in half and roll them between your palms. If they're too long, I cut them in half, though the recipe doesn't say to do it that way; guess I did more or less wind up making pici. And I tried to keep them more "twisty" to catch the sauce better.

Kevin, those meal looks fantastic, from the grapes and sausage to the wormy squiggly pasta to the crispy potatoes with greens.  I really have Italian cuisine to thank for getting me into eating greens.  I really didn't get them 10 years ago.  On the note of those umbrecelli, are they a regular egg-flour dough?

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Yes, but a large batch: 600 grams flour, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup white wine. Probably in hindsight I could've backed down the proportions since I did wind up freezing half, but with these thicker pastas I never quite know what the yield will look like.

Kevin:  That really is quite a feast!  Could you say a little more about the potatoes and greens since I don't have JdC's book and I can't quite figure out what happened before they were plated?  As for the home-rolled pasta, ahh!  One of the few culinary memories I have from short trips taken down to Umbria was in Orvieto where I had my first picci, lightly sauced and slightly piccante.

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I used Yukon Golds and sauteed them in olive oil (they promptly stuck, hence the accidental "crust), then added a bunch of regular kale. Then I topped it off with some of the boiling, salted water I was going to use for the pasta, covered the pan, and let it cook on low for about 20 minutes. Remarkably, the potatoes absorbed almost all the liquid in the pan and really took on the flavor of the greens. A little underseasoned, but a good foil overall.

Judith: no I didn't braise the grapes on the side there; that was a purely ornamental addition to take up empty space in the photos. See, every now and again I actually do get a sense of visual appeal. My question to you: that folded up sandwich thingie: is it called piadine there or do they call it something else? I may make something like that; I again refer to the awesome pic in della Croce's book of something quite similar looking.

[Pontormo]

Thanks, Kevin. I intend to have the same accident since the crust looks good!

Edited October 16, 2006 by Pontormo (log)

[hathor]

Those bitter greens are showing up everywhere. When we were in Morra, there were large ortos (vegetable gardens) filled with the most amazing variety of weird greens, some of them look postively alien. I've been throwing little bits of them in lots of things.

Kevin, yes, that's a "piadini", a flat bread cooked on a hot stone. They sell them in packages, like tortillas, and then you brown them in a hot pan before using them.

By the way, those game hens look gorgeous!

I made Ellie's roast potatoes and fennel the other night...highly recommend the combination!

Here is last night's dinner:

Pietralunga Potato Soup with Leeks and Walnut garnish (yes, the walnuts that bounced off of my head)

Roast quail stuffed with sausage and chestnuts, served on a bed of truffled "Fagioli Zolfini del Paratomagno"

Poached spiced pears with creamy yoghurt. Generic dessert dish...does not qualify as Umbrian except the pears were local. Falls into that 'irksome' category of recipes that was discussed upthread. But they are pretty and they make the whole house smell good.

It's the beans and truffles that are the amazing combination. Fagioli Zolfini del Paratomagno are these little, pale colored beans that come from around the Arezzo areao, which is in Tuscany...but we're really close to Arezzo, so I still think of them as local beans. Anyway, they are the most flavorful bean I've ever come across. Normally the best way to eat them is just with some olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. The back of the bag talks about the ease of digestibility and also says that it will not provoke "fenomeni di meteorismo".....do they mean gas???

But I just bought this little truffle guide/recipe book and they had a recipe for quail stuffed with sausage and chestnuts with a white truffle sauce. I didn't have any white truffles on hand, but I had white truffle paste, and that paired with the Zolfini beans seemed like the perfect, luxurious, sensous, decadent, hedonistic counterpoint to the luscious quail. The combination just hits some tastes buds that are located right in the solar plexis. Can you tell it worked for me???

Edited October 17, 2006 by hathor (log)